From a Melbourne rail professional who some say, has too much time on his hands, selected news and commentary to help preserve our enduring institutions and values, advance economic liberalism, social conservatism and other, sundry matters ... Online since 1999 ...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

"... carving out a resilient persona at some political expense instead of continually using the power of mere suggestion for political gain, takes courage ... "

Luke Stickels in writing for newmatilda.com poses am interesting article featuring the opinions of two politically dissimilar individuals, and found at least one common view on the Rudd government.

"Eight months in the Rudd Government is fielding similar criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. Luke Stickels talks to Ed Coper from GetUp! and Noel McCoy from the Young Libs.

"Kevin Rudd doesn't care about disenfranchised majorities. Or does he. Does he? You'll have to excuse me - John Howard dominated my entire adult political life, and since the Ruddslide, I have to admit to feeling a little disorientated."

"Eight frenetic months into Australia's new allegedly progressive era, I went looking for appraisals of what we can expect from the new Government, based on what we've seen so far. You wouldn't expect figures as disparate as Ed Coper, Campaign Coordinator of prominent activist group GetUp!, and Noel McCoy, President of the National Young Liberal Party, to agree on much - would you?"

Incidentally, Get up, is the action group that champions progressiveness in Australian politics...

Continues McCoy, "Obviously I've got my partisan view," but I don't feel they've achieved that much. They've touted a lot - they signed the Kyoto Protocol, made the apology to stolen generations. These are announcements, they're symbolic and important to people, but they don't have much impact. My position on Kevin Rudd is that he's pretty flaky, and his Government is too."

"Political parties and institutional politics have too often failed to inspire people or offer meaningful opportunities for participation, yet despite years of economic good times, many Australians remain deeply concerned about the political direction of our country. It has not been a good decade for Australia's progressives - those of us who share a commitment to the values of social justice, cultural diversity, ecological sustainability and economic fairness."

"It's more than your predictable rivalry though. Coper, says, "[Rolling] out viable strategies is not just an issue of the Coalition still controlling the Senate. We've seen [things that are] politically and practically easy ticked off." Press reporters, too, are losing patience with what The Age columnist, Paul Daley, calls "a Government that behaves like it's still in an election campaign".

"Labor is only now appreciating the difficulties of being in government," says Coper. "There's a broad base of interests in Australia and you can't please everyone all the time."more >>

Indeed, as Paul Daley pointed out in an Age piece recently, “In politics nothing is more important than the narrative. It can be a fairytale. But it has to be about the future. Policy reviews are one thing. But there's a discernible caucus disquiet that Rudd is yet to consolidate his Government with a captivating plan for forward-looking institutional and structural change. Instead, Labor miles ahead in the polls, is cruising from election-style announcement to announcement. The Opposition calls it "thought bubble politics".

Some may simply refer to it as short-term attention diverting tactics that reveal little about the true nature of Rudd and co. Besides Kevin Rudd has yet to display strong leadership, for example, he has not yet clearly articulates the true cost, the solution of you will, of an ETS on “working families,” those he called upon to put him in the top job. This will constitute one of Rudd’s many litmus tests, carving out a resilient persona at some political expense instead of continually using the power of mere suggestion for political gain, takes courage, little wonder some describe it as, “a Government that behaves like it's still in an election campaign". The gloss may yet begin peeling …

1 comment:

"Kevin Rudd doesn't care about disenfranchised majorities. Or does he. Does he?"

He'll only care when it's election time. Then again judging from the opinion polls, i'm not entirely sure the electorate is all that unhappy.

I caught a bit of news last night, they were talking about the economic crisis in America and some fellow from our reserve bank was saying that our economy is affected but is very different from America. Basically he was saying that we are far better off.

Now i wonder if the viewers put 2 and 2 together to figure out why that is the case. After all the Howard government didn't earn the admiration of world economists by being economic morons or something.

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